Chapter 1
This was not how Ryan McCloud wanted to wake up this morning. Shirtless, muscles aching, and still depressed about losing in the playoffs a month ago. The whole reason he had finally decided to break down and go rent a cabin in the woods was because it was in the woods! Quiet and solitary and without any people.
Yet here he was, trying to sleep away the end of the hockey season with someone loudly knocking on his front door. Sure, it was a polite knock, not too aggressive. But the cabin had a two-story living room and that knocking was echoing through the open space.
And there it was again.
Ryan sat up and dragged his hand over his face, his stubble scratching against his palm. He hadn't shaved in a few days and his beard was getting itchy. He would have to take care of that later. Right now, he just wanted to answer the door and get rid of whoever was on the other side.
He walked over and stared through the peephole that had clouded over a bit with age, and there was no denying who was on the other side.
Lucy Evans.
He watched her as she raised her hand again, decided he couldn't handle listening to that incessant knocking, and quickly opened the door instead. Lucy looked stunned, her hand hanging in midair, her eyes staring at his chest.
That's when Ryan remembered that he had slept on the couch last night in nothing but his boxer briefs — and he just answered the door in nothing but his boxer briefs.
He could tell Lucy finally realized she was staring by the way she dropped her hand before her eyes began darting around in all different directions.
"Um, hi," she sputtered. "I'm Lucy Evans. I'm staying in that cabin over there."
Her hand jerked towards the cabin next door, her eyes moving to the trees and then the lake and then the hand she was still holding in the air.
"Hi, Lucy."
"I'm probably bothering you, I know." She awkwardly smiled without actually looking at him as she gestured towards his pick-up truck. "I don't know if you realized this, but we share a driveway."
Lucy stared at his truck, still seeming to be oblivious to the fact that she knew him. Sure, he answered the door in his underwear, and he was hockey star Ryan McCloud, second-year defenseman for the legendary Detroit Pirates. He was also Ryan, her best friend's next-door neighbor back in Detroit. Lucy wasn't just some fan or something. Sheknewhim. But his appearance in his underwear was apparently flustering her. She was always so prim and professional — things that made it obvious she was a lawyer. So all this nervous energy from her was either freaking him out or turning him on.
Then he remembered he was wearing only his underwear in front of Lucy.
This is freaking you out! You are not turned on by this!he was yelling in his head.
"I know about the shared driveway."
"Oh, OK." Lucy's eyes fell on the road just beyond his truck. "So I was hoping to go to the grocery store—"
"Lucy."
"—but your truck is blocking me in—"
"Lucy."
"—and it's an awesome-looking truck, but it's just in my way and I was hoping maybe—"
"Lucy!"
Her eyes focused on him, and the flustered woman in front of him finally recognized who she was talking to.
"Ryan?"
"Hi."
He watched as her eyes wandered a bit. She was trying to hide it, but he knew exactly what she was doing. He had seen women do it before, although most of those times were right before he did something else with them. Lucy would never be one of those women who slept with him because he was a hockey player, or really a woman who would sleep with him for any reason. Still, it was kind of fun to watch her try and sneak a peek while hiding the fact that that was exactly what she was doing. She wasn't doing very well. But she finally composed herself, her eyes coming back up to his as her hands slid into the pockets of her shorts.
"I didn't know you were going to be here."
He shrugged. "Andy said I needed a mental health vacation and suggested I check in with your parents."
